The Use of City Information Modelling (CIM) for Realizing Zero Energy Community: A Path Towards Carbon Neutrality

City information modelling (CIM) offers a digital depiction of the urban environment, empowering stakeholders to critically review and optimise the performance of energy. In the pursuit towards Zero Energy Cities (ZECs), CIM becomes an essential instrument of this process. However, despite the promise it delivers, the uptake is slow. This research therefore addresses the gap by providing a comprehensive overview of CIM’s potential for facilitating the achievement of ZECs in the built environment. The chapter employs an extensive review of the literature on the subject. The results reveal that, there exist a notable dearth of research concerning the design and execution of the zero-energy concept within the context of community-scale implementation. Moreover, the merging of CIM and UDT opens novel possibilities for establishing zero-carbon communities throughout their life cycle. By harnessing data from various origins such as buildings, energy grids, urban planning, environmental setups, transportation networks, and socio-demographic metrics, it then becomes feasible to construct a holistic digital portrayal of the community. It is consequently imperative to conduct comprehensive cross-sector inquiries that delves into the practical realization of the zero-energy community concept within the wider framework of local sustainability objectives. This entails examining the interplay between climate mitigation measures and sustainability goals, while carefully assessing both potential conflicts and opportunities.